Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The nation that keeps on giving and giving.

The last president entitled to lifetime protection from the Secret Service after leaving office was Bill Clinton. All subsequent presidents, congress decided, would be afforded a maximum 10 years of protection.

But according to a Homeland Security budget report, in that George Bush plans to travel overseas after leaving office, much like his father and president Clinton (and Dada assumes that means travel exclusive of those nations that are signatories to international treaties and conventions that punish war crimes/criminals), the Iraq war, and continuing terrorism threat, "the president's post-presidency detail will require significantly more resources than are currently staffing former presidents," the report says.

It is increasingly assumed congress will restore lifetime secret service protection to the president. According to William Pickle, current sergeant of arms for the U.S. Senate and former 26 year veteran of the Secret Service said, "You'll see that with 9/11 and the war we're in and the memories of people going for decades, the Secret Service and Congress will have to change that and make it a lifetime (requirement) again."

It's nice that people won't forget president Bush for a long, long time. Sadly, my biggest regret at this news is that in retirement, just like while in office, Bush will continue to be our costliest president ever. One we truly couldn't afford, I imagine. But it's important we maintain the security of one who so significantly increased, globally, the danger to us all.

THE BEGINNING IS NEAR

HUH?

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, "Look at that, you son of a bitch."

— Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, People magazine, 8 April 1974.

"Keep in mind that this planet is no model for rational thought, and that what passes for sanity here is sending chills down the spine of the remainder of the universe." E.T. 101

"An Empire’s power depends on its ability to control the cultural stories and language that shape our collective understanding of our world and our choices as a species. Empire stories induce a kind of cultural trance that conditions us to accept the dominator relations of Empire as just and righteous and to dismiss talk of alternatives as naïve, dangerous, or even sinful." ~ David Korten